The Vatican Information Service is a news service, founded in the Holy See Press Office, that provides information about the Magisterium and the pastoral activities of the Holy Father and the Roman Curia...[+]

Last 5 news

Monday, October 27, 2014

Vatican City, 27 October 2014 (VIS) –
Today the Holy Father Francis received in audience in the Vatican
Apostolic Palace the president of the Republic of Uganda, Yoweri
Kaguta Museveni, who subsequently met with Cardinal Secretary of
State Pietro Parolin, accompanied by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti,
secretary for Relations with States.

During the cordial discussions, the
Parties focused on certain aspects of life in the country and the
good relations existing between the Holy See and the Republic of
Uganda were highlighted, with particular reference to the fundamental
contribution of the Catholic Church and her collaboration with
institutions in the educational, social and healthcare sectors.
Furthermore, the importance of peaceful co-existence between the
various social and religious components of the country was
underlined.

Finally, mention was made of various
questions of an international nature, with special attention to the
conflicts affecting certain areas of Africa.

Vatican City, 27 October 2014 (VIS) –
This morning the Holy Father attended the plenary session of the
Pontifical Academy of Sciences held in the Casina Pio IV, during
which he inaugurated a bust of Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, whom he
described as “a great Pope. Great for the strength and penetration
of his intelligence, great for his important contribution to
theology, great for his love of the Church and of human beings, great
for his virtue and religiosity”. He recalled that Benedict XVI was
the first to invite a president of this Academy to participate in the
Synod on new evangelisation, “aware of the importance of science in
modern culture”.

Pope Francis chose not to focus on the
complex issue of the evolution of nature, the theme the Academy will
consider during this session, emphasising however that “God and
Christ walk with us and are also present in nature”. “When we
read in Genesis the account of Creation, we risk imagining God as a
magus, with a magic wand able to make everything. But it is not so.
He created beings and allowed them to develop according to the
internal laws that He gave to each one, so that they were able to
develop and to arrive and their fullness of being. He gave autonomy
to the beings of the Universe at the same time at which he assured
them of his continuous presence, giving being to every reality. And
so creation continued for centuries and centuries, millennia and
millennia, until it became which we know today, precisely because God
is not a demiurge or a conjurer, but the Creator who gives being to
all things. The beginning of the world is not the work of chaos that
owes its origin to another, but derives directly from a supreme
Origin that creates out of love. The Big Bang, which nowadays is
posited as the origin of the world, does not contradict the divine
act of creating, but rather requires it. The evolution of nature does
not contrast with the notion of Creation, as evolution presupposes
the creation of beings that evolve”.

He continued, “With regard to man,
instead, there is a change and something new. When, on the sixth day
of the account in Genesis, man is created, God gives the human being
another autonomy, an autonomy that is different to that of nature,
which is freedom. And he tells man to name everything and to go ahead
through history. This makes him responsible for creation, so that he
might dominate it in order to develop it until the end of time.
Therefore the scientist, and above all the Christian scientist, must
adopt the approach of posing questions regarding the future of
humanity and of the earth, and, of being free and responsible,
helping to prepare it and preserve it, to eliminate risks to the
environment of both a natural and human nature. But, at the same
time, the scientist must be motivated by the confidence that nature
hides, in her evolutionary mechanisms, potentialities for
intelligence and freedom to discover and realise, to achieve the
development that is in the plan of the Creator. So, while limited,
the action of humanity is part of God's power and is able to build a
world suited to his dual corporal and spiritual life; to build a
human world for all human beings and not for a group or a class of
privileged persons. This hope and trust in God, the Creator of
nature, and in the capacity of the human spirit can offer the
researcher a new energy and profound serenity. But it is also true
that the action of humanity – when freedom becomes autonomy –
which is not freedom, but autonomy – destroys creation and man
takes the place of the Creator. And this is the grave sin against God
the Creator”, he concluded.

Vatican City, 26 October 2014 (VIS) –
More than eighty thousand people prayed the Angelus with Pope Francis
in St. Peter's Square this Sunday. Before the Marian prayer the Holy
Father commented on today's Gospel reading, in which he reiterated
that all of the divine Law may be summarised in love for God and
neighbour: two sides of the same coin.

Pope Francis explained that according
to the evangelist Matthew, some Pharisees agreed to put Jesus to the
test by asking him which commandment was the most important in the
Law. Jesus, citing the book of Deuteronomy, answered: “You shall
love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and
with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment”.
“He could have stopped there”, said the bishop of Rome. “Instead,
Jesus adds something else that was not asked by the expert of the
Law. Indeed, he said: 'And the second is like it: Love your neighbour
as yourself'. Even this second commandment is not invented by Jesus,
but rather taken from the Book of Leviticus. Its newness consists
precisely in putting together these two commandments - the love for
God and love for one's neighbour - revealing that they are
inseparable and complementary, they are two sides of the same coin.
You cannot love God without loving your neighbour and you can’t
love your neighbour without loving God”.

Indeed, “the visible sign that a
Christian can show to give witness to the world … of the love of
God is the love of his brethren. The commandment of love for God and
one's neighbour is the first not because it is the first in the list
of commandment. Jesus does not place it at the top, but rather at the
centre since it is the heart from which everything must begin and to
which everything must return and refer to. … In the light of Jesus'
words, love is the measure of faith, and faith is the soul of love.
We can never separate religious life from the service of the brothers
and sisters, to those real brethren we meet. We can never divide
prayer, the encounter with God in the Sacraments, from listening to
others, from closeness to their lives and especially to their
wounds”.

“In the midst of the dense forest of
precepts and prescriptions – the legalisms of yesterday and today –
Jesus opens up a gap through which we can glimpse two faces: the face
of the Father and that of the brother. He does not give us two rules
or two precepts: he gives us two faces. Or rather, it is one face:
that of God that is reflected in the faces of so many, because in the
face of every brother and sister, especially the least, the fragile,
the helpless and the needy, the very image of God is present”.

“In this way, Jesus offers every man
and woman the fundamental criteria on which to base their lives”,
concluded Francis. “But above all, He gives us the Holy Spirit,
which enables us to love God and our neighbour like Him, with a free
and generous heart. Through the intercession of Mary, our Mother, let
us open ourselves to receive this gift of love, always to follow the
path of this law, of the two faces that are one face, the law of
love”.

Following the Marian prayer, the Holy
Father commented that on Saturday in Sao Paulo in Brazil, Mother
Assunta Marchetti was proclaimed Blessed. Born in Italy, she was the
co-founder of the Missionary Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo (the
“Scalabrini”). “She was a nun who was exemplary in the service
of orphans of Italian immigrants. She saw Jesus in the poor, in
orphans, in the sick, in migrants. Let us give thanks to the Lord for
this woman, a model of tireless missionary spirit and courageous
dedication in the service of charity”.

Vatican City, 25 October 2014 (VIS) –
Pope Francis has sent a message to the participants in the national
congress organised by the Italian Episcopal Conference in Salerno,
Italy, on the theme “In precariousness, hope”. The aim of the
conference is to offer, especially to the younger generations,
prospects of hope at a time characterised by uncertainty,
restlessness and great change.

“In my visits in Italy, and in my
encounters with the people, I have been able to encounter first-hand
the situation of many young people who are jobless, in receipt of
unemployment insurance, or in precarious work”, Francis writes.
“But this is not only an economic problem – it is a problem of
dignity. Where there is no work, there is no dignity – there lacks
the experience of the dignity of bringing bread home to the table.
And unfortunately, in Italy, there are very many young people without
work”.

“Working means planning one's own
future, deciding to establish a family. There is truly a sensation
that the current moment is the 'passion of the young'. This throwaway
culture is very strong: everything that does not bring profit is
discarded. The young are cast aside, because they are without work.
But this means discarding the future of the people, as the young
represent the future of the people. We must say 'no' to this
'throwaway culture'”.

While, however, there is
precariousness, the Pope observed that there is also hope, as the
title of the congress affirms. “How can we make sure that we are
not robbed of hope by the 'shifting sands' of precariousness? With
the strength of the Gospel. The Gospel is a source of hope, because
it comes from God and because it comes from Jesus Christ, who
sympathised with all our precariousness”.

“You are young people who belong to
the Church”, concludes the Holy Father, “and you therefore have
the gift and the responsibility of bringing the strength of the
Gospel to this social and cultural situation”, because “the
Gospel generates care for others, the culture of encounter and
solidarity. Thus, with the strength of the Gospel, you will be
witnesses of hope in precariousness”.

Vatican City, 25 October 2014 (VIS) –
Yesterday, 24 October, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin
spoke at the conference organised by the Kellogg Institute for
International Studies dedicated to the theme of “Human Dignity and
Human Development”, marking the inauguration of the University of
Notre Dame Global Gateway.

The cardinal observed that “the
topics which have been discussed show that, in speaking of the
relationship between development and human dignity, the terms
'economy', 'economic systems' and the like, can all be employed as
synonyms for the term 'development'. This in itself helps us to
appreciate better the challenges we face in promoting human dignity.
Development is in fact closely linked to the proper management of
resources in poorer countries, and the economic decisions made by
wealthy countries, which have positive or negative repercussions on
the economy of developing countries. But the more fundamental reason
for beginning with economics is that the Church’s social teaching
has constantly emphasised that the greatest obstacles to universal
and integral human development are found in a distorted vision of man
and economic activity, one which threatens the dignity of the human
person”.

The secretary of State remarked on the
continuity between of Francis' magisterium and that of his
predecessors, especially Benedict XVI, who “using very similar
words, warn that the problems of development and the just regulation
of the economy remain insoluble without a holistic vision of the
human person and a commitment to constant and coherent moral
standards firmly grounded in the natural law and the pursuit of the
common good”. As Benedict XVI writes in his encyclical “Caritas
in Veritate”, “development will never be fully guaranteed through
automatic or impersonal forces, whether they derive from the market
or from international politics. Development is impossible without
upright men and women, without financiers and politicians whose
consciences are finely attuned to the requirements of the common
good”.

“Conversion of mind and heart is thus
required if economic activity as a whole is to be genuinely directed
to integral human development”, Cardinal Parolin emphasised. “A
'Promethean faith' in the market, or in other ideologies and forms of
aprioristic thinking, will need to be replaced by faith in God and a
transcendent vision of men and women as God’s children. This in
turn will lead to intellectual conversion in the sense of developing
an economic science and praxis which begins with an integral
understanding of the human person, that is placed at the service of
human development, and is capable of orienting production and
consumption to authentic human fulfilment, in our relationship with
God and with our neighbour”.